


Practice Makes Perfect Pt 1/?

by PhoenixDragon



Category: Doctor Who RPF
Genre: Fluff, Inevitable Drunkeness, M/M, Mild Angst, Mild slash, silliness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-30
Updated: 2014-03-30
Packaged: 2018-01-17 14:30:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1391155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhoenixDragon/pseuds/PhoenixDragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Arthur nudged him, raising his voice to be heard over the crowd around them, his poke hard enough to almost spill Matt’s lager. He didn’t seem to notice that (much less Matt’s scowl), as he was staring down at the pages of the revised script for episode two; and why the fuck did he bring that with him to the pub of all places?</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Practice Makes Perfect Pt 1/?

“Hey Matt,” Arthur nudged him, raising his voice to be heard over the crowd around them, his poke hard enough to almost spill Matt’s lager. He didn’t seem to notice that (much less Matt’s scowl), as he was staring down at the pages of the revised script for episode two; and why the fuck did he bring that with him to the pub of all places? “Did’ja see the new script?”

“Yeah,” Matt shrugged, licking foam from his lips. “Course I did, what about it?”

“Well, on the next to last page. The scene for –”

“Oh, right – _yeah_ ,” Matt interrupted with a wince. “Look, if you wanna talk to Chris, get that written back out –”

“No – ah…no,” Arthur shook his head quickly, looking more sheepish than concerned. “Not like that, I just – _really_?”

“’Bout time though, mate,” Matt chuckled, grin tugging the corners of his mouth. “Everyone else has snogged the Doctor. Why not Rory?”

“Just…how’re we gonna go about it?” Arthur asked, staring at the offending page.

“I dunno,” Matt shrugged. “I kiss you, they call cut – end of story. Another? S’on me.”

“No – I mean yes to the pint, no to the…So I’m just supposed to let you snog me while I stand there like a bleedin’ pillock?” Arthur pressed, exasperated.

“Well…I guess,” Matt said doubtfully.

“Thanks a lot, Mattie,” Arthur shot back, frowning in his general direction.

“Look, we can get Chris to remove the part if it’s gonna eat at you,” Matt said mildly. “I know how you can obsess.”

“I’m not _obsessing_ ,” Arthur protested. “See? This is me. Not obsessing. I just…I mean I’m –”

“Obsessing,” Matt said with a smirk. “No big, Artie. I’ll talk with Chris tomorrow, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Arthur replied glumly. “Just go get me that pint. And don’t drink half of it before you come back here, either.”

Matt laughed and rose from the booth with a wink – and just like that, the problem was resolved. Arthur felt more than a little relieved. Until he saw his pint: which Matt had drank half of before getting back to their table.

Arthur could have happily punched him.

 

****

**

O-O-O

**

****

 

Matt flopped heavily onto the couch in Arthur’s trailer, almost bouncing the other man to the floor as he did so. He went boneless, sliding halfway down the seat, frown pulling at his mouth.

“ _Well_ ,” he announce dramatically. “We may have a problem.”

“What?” Arthur asked, shoving at him so he’d quit lounging against his legs. “Is it your hair again? Cause that is a _lot_ of hair, mate.”

“Fuck you,” Matt retorted mildly, flipping said hair out of his eyes. “And _no_ …I wasn’t able to make Chris cut the scene.”

“What?!” Arthur squeaked.

“Breathe, Artie,” Matt soothed. “You’re clutching.”

“No, I’m not,” Arthur bleated. “Am I? I’m not.”

“Yes, you are. Look, it’s no big deal, okay? Peck on the lips and I’ll convince Kaz to do CPR on you afters.” Matt said, pouting a little at the blank look on Arthur’s face. “You’d think I carry the plague or something.”

“No, just…wait! You’ve done this before,” Arthur said, like something had just occurred to him.

“Yeah. And?”

“ _And_ you’ve done a little more than…well, _kiss_. And you seemed to be rather good at…it,” Arthur stammered, hands waving randomly.

“Thanks?” Matt blinked.

“But, my point is, well – I _haven’t_. I’ve never…snogged a bloke. Never been in my purview before.”

“Big words, Arthur,” Matt snarked, making a face. “Might go over my head if you keep rattling off stuff like that.”

“Well…it’s not. Never had call to snog a bloke before,” Arthur whined. “Not everyone has that whole metrosexual thing going for them.”

“Hey!” Matt protested.

“Well, I mean – _look_ at you!” Arthur said with a flick of his fingers.

“Thanks, Arthur,” Matt growled, snorting out a breath. “Look at it this way, though – least you don’t have to lock lips with a virtual stranger.”

“No, I have to lock lips with _you_ ,” Arthur retorted.

“Clutching, Arthur,” Matt sighed, knowing better than to take the increasingly insulting tirade to heart. “Clutching _and_ obsessing.”

“But –”

“No.” Matt said firmly. “All you are gonna do is get into a fight with me and then you’ll have to snog a bloke who wants to black both your eyes.”

“But –”

“No.”

“I just –”

“ _No_.”

“Okay,” Arthur relented with a sigh. “Sorry…I didn’t mean to –”

“Call me unattractive and an undecided homosexual in one breath? No offense taken,” Matt sighed, pinching his nose.

“Thanks, mate,” Arthur smiled, looking relieved. “I don’t think you’re unattractive, though –”

“Arthur. Shut up,” Matt groused. “Just…quit while you’re ahead.”

“Right.”

 

****

**

O-O-O

**

****

 

The pub was noisier than ever, making conversation almost impossible, but that didn’t stop Arthur from trying anyway.

“Look, maybe we should…I dunno, _practice_ ,” Arthur said vaguely.

“What?” Matt was already well into his third pint and he didn’t have the slightest idea what Arthur was currently rattling on about. He had his suspicions, but he didn’t want to think Artie’d want to discuss…well… _that_ in the middle of a crowded pub.

Of course, he was wrong.

He’d need a fourth soon.

“The kiss,” Arthur pressed, ignoring the hundreds of locals practically squashed against their booth. “We should – I dunno – practice.”

“Artie,” Matt whined, scrubbing hands through his hair before trying to hide himself behind his fingers. “It’ll just be a peck –”

“Well, we don’t wanna look stupid do we?” Arthur insisted stubbornly.

“S’kinda the point, I’m sure,” Matt said drily, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Besides, I’ll make sure it only happens in one take.”

“You _know_ how Steven gets,” Arthur said (and admittedly, he had something there). “Not clutching, by the way.”

“No, you’re obsessing,” Matt groaned, wishing he could pound his head on the table. But this conversation was likely getting enough attention without extra added histrionics. “Look – what does the blasted script say?”

“Doctor kisses Rory,” Arthur recited from memory.

“There ya go,” Matt said with a sigh. “Quick, chaste snog and we’re done.”

“With enthusiasm,” Arthur continued with a wide-eyed look.

“ _What_?”

“’With enthusiasm’ – s’what the script says,” Arthur shrugged.

Of all the times to suddenly be blasé.

“ _With enthu-_ hang on, you got it with you?” Matt asked impatiently. “I know you do with all your obsessing, clutching and banging on about it.”

Arthur produced the pages in question without a word, watching with mild interest as Matt flipped to the relevant section, reading glasses whipped out from nowhere to be perched hastily on his nose as he scanned the passages about Rory and the Doctor. He read it a second time, hand swiping absently through his hair, then a third time as though he may have missed something the first two times.

Arthur finished his pint. Matt’s pint, that is. He was already done with his own, but felt it wouldn’t have been prudent (or polite) to point it out while Matt was reading. What are friends for, after all?

“Hang on,” Matt said after the sixth read-through, finger stabbing at the pages in front of him. “What is that even supposed to _mean_?”

“ _Right_?”

“So…that’s it? Rory gets kissed with _enthusiasm_? _How_ enthusiastic?” Matt blurted in exasperated dismay. “This was just supposed to be a joke from what Chris said. What’s all this ‘ _enthusiasm_ ’ shite?”

“See? _Now_ who’s clutching?” Arthur said smugly.

“Shut up,” Matt muttered. “Not clutching. Anyway, s’alright, innit? No change of plans.”

“How so?”

“Quick, ‘enthusiastic’ peck and _bang_ – finished.” Matt said it as though it was a done deal, but his forehead was still doing that worried thing it did when he was well… _worried_.

“Yeah,” Arthur said sympathetically. “Sure that’s how it will go.”

“Don’t patronize me,” Matt grumbled. “S’all your fault anyway, innit? All that obsessing and clutching – owe me a pint you do.”

“Don’t owe you a pint for the pickle Chris got us into,” Arthur protested. “That’s not my fault!”

“No, but you drank my pint when you thought I wasn’t looking,” Matt pointed out. “Therefore, next round is on you.”

“If that’s your logic, you owe me a lot of pints then, mate,” Arthur said tetchily.

Matt made a snorting noise and went back to reading the script for the seventh, eighth time.

“If you make it past ten read-throughs, you’re obsessing,” Arthur informed him primly.

“Shut it, my turn to clutch. Why’re you still here?” Matt muttered from the depths of the script. “Gonna need at least one more to process this shite proper.”

Maybe two, was Arthur’s thinking.

‘With enthusiasm’.

Maybe three.

****

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TBC...

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**Author's Note:**

>  **Warnings:** Silliness, Fluff, Inevitable Drunkeness, Mild Angst, Mild Slash  
>  **A/N:** This was written right around the 'famous kiss' scene between the Doctor and Rory. It was also written before we knew the actual circumstances behind the kiss, so you can definitely consider this 'AU RPS'. I was playing with the assumption that this was a joke/fix-it on the part of the writers (and a way for Moffat to mess with his actors) and it was such a fun idea, I wrote this ficlet and had a marvelous time doing so! Alas, I never completed it and it was for a variety of reasons: a) I could never make up my mind on where to go from the ending point and b) we eventually found out that Matt 'just likes to kiss people'. But I still adore the fic and think it deserves a story and an ending. Which is where you all will come in (but that is another post soon to follow this one). For now, suffice to say that silly, fluffy *GASP* fic is fluffy and silly. As always, mostly unbeta'd and written in one go, so please forgive any mistakes and/or blatant vagueness. I apologize for any repetition, misspellings, sentence fails, grammatical oh-noes and general horridness. Unbeta'd fic is overly-blithery and unbeta'd.  
>  Originally written 09-16-2012.  
>  **Disclaimer(s): _I do not own Matt Smith or Arthur Darvill - they totally own themselves. I have just borrowed their voices/faces/selves for a fiction that is (I assure you) complete fiction. I do not know or associate with the actors, nor do I mean harm by 'borrowing' them for this story. The only thing that belongs to me is this fiction and I am making no profit. Only playing about!_**


End file.
